Before we got news that Terry Gilliam would be directing Christoph Waltz in his modestly budgeted futuristic drama The Zero Theorem, there were murmurs that the talent would be returning to the long-awaited, on-and-off-again project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. As documented in the feature-length documentary Lost in La Mancha, back in 2000 the director had secured Jean Rochefort (Tell No One) and Johnny Depp for lead roles, but a myriad of problems caused the collapsed of the production.
With new financing in place a shoot was rumored for last year with Robert Duvall and Ewan McGregor briefly attached and now it looks like some variation of the project is actually moving forward. While at the Camerimage Festival of the Art of Cinematography in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Coming Soon had a chance to sit down with the director, who said, “I’m going to try to do Don Quixote again. I think this is the seventh time. Lucky seven, maybe. We’ll see if it happens. This is kind of my default position, going back to that. I actually just want to make it and get rid of it. Get it out of my life.”
It looks like Gilliam has no expectations for the Miguel de Cervantes adaptation, something one can’t blame considering his track record. He went on to say, “I don’t know if it will be good or bad. The dangerous thing is that a lot of people are waiting for it, so I can disappoint a lot of people maybe.” Disappointment or not, we’re always looking forward to a Gilliam project, so hopefully we learn of casting and more details soon — let’s just hope Johnny Depp doesn’t beat him to the punch. In the meantime, check out the aforementioned documentary on the original production directly below.
Would you like to finally see this Gilliam project? Who should star?